Jean-François Fillion
Jean-François Fillion (Commonly referred to as François or JF) Age: 54 Spouse: Marie-Anne La France Children: Pierre (22), Joanne (18) Party: Bloc Québecois Riding: Richelieu History: The nationalist history of J-F Fillion stems way back to when his family was moved from Québec to Louisiana by the English. It was not until 1913 that J-F's grandfather, Marc-André, moved back to Québec where he and his new wife, Paulette, and raised their only boy (J-F's father, René) and seven girls to be fiercely patriotic to their home Province and to be extremely proud of their French heritage and to be mindful of the hardships previously endured. This ideal was not lost on René and would not be lost on his four children: Jacques, Jean-François, Marie and Renaud. Throughout his life, Jean-François voted for the Progressive Conservative Party due to their socially conservative policy. However, he was elected in the provincial riding of Verchères for the Parti Parti Québécois in 1976 on the platform not of Sovereignty-Association but rather that the province of Québec was an extremely different province and, thus, required different standards and different responsibilities and even a different degree of autonomy. He was most famously quoted as saying "If Quebec is not recognized by all of Canada as a distinct society than I can live so long as the people of Quebec will be given the right to make decisions for themselves based on their great difference from the government in Ottawa and every provincial capitol." In this single quote, Jean-François exemplified his policy regarding Quebec's nationalist and separatist tendencies. He was not quick to call for a complete separation of the province and the country but, instead, a revision of Quebec's responsibilities and rights as a province. He served a total of 12 years as a Member of the National Assembly. During those 12 years, he served a single year (from 1984-1985 when the Parti Quebecois lost the election) as Minister for Education, Leisure and Sports. During this time, he was an outspoken supporter of French-Language teaching and of "improving the sense of culture amongst day's today's youth through education." This was popular in his home riding and in most of the Province (although Montreal was not so keen on the idea- being a multi-cultural hub). In 1985, the Parti Quebecois lost the Provincial election to the Liberal Party; Jean-François, a very charismatic and popular figure amongst the people of Quebec, was immediately called by the Progressive Conservatives to run for them in the next federal election (1988) but Fillion declined. He said he would better serve the people of Quebec in the National Assembly as the Critic for Education, Leisure and Sports. After two years as the critic, however, he moved to the back benches upon his own accord in order to juggle his family life (his father had fallen ill and eventually died in late 1989) and his work life. He remained vocal in the back benches as a supporter of the Quebecois lifestyle and the need to create a state-like entity of Quebec that would remain within Canada. He served in this role for 2 years. In 1989, there was a by-election in the federal riding of Richelieu- where Jean-François had grown up- and he was once again asked by the PC to run. This time, he could not refuse. He won the by-election by a large margin and served in the back benches for a year when another opportunity came knocking on his door. Lucien Bouchard, a close family friend and colleague of Jean-François', formed a party within the House which was called the Bloc Quebecois. This party espoused separatist tendencies but the part which most interested Jean-François was the wish to see a distinct difference for Quebec's provincial authority and autonomy. He defected to the Bloc officially in 1990 and has served with them since as an outspoken critic of the government's handling of the Meech Lake Accord (which he felt was poorly handled by the Canadian government and was unfair to the Quebecois and he even called it offensive that the Canadian government thought they could "appease the Quebecois with a simple phrase") and of the Government's inability to see and act upon what he called "obvious differences between the philosophy of the people of Quebec and those of Anglo-Canada."*